Collection BG/S - STAINES BOARD OF GUARDIANS

0.35 linear metres

The archives of this Board are believed to have been destroyed by fire shortly before 1929.
BG/S 1905-1930 Collection 0.35 linear metres Staines Poor Law Union x Staines Board of Guardians

Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.

Staines Poor Law Union was formed in June 1836. It had 13 constituent parishes, all situated in what was then Middlesex: Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Cranford, Feltham, Hanworth, Harlington, Harmondsworth, Laleham, Littleton, Staines, Stanwell, Shepperton, Sunbury. In 1831 the population of the Union was 12,644. The Union constructed a new workhouse on the London Road in Ashford in 1840-1841.

Fostering - that is the arrangement whereby one person pays another for the care of a child - has always existed in one form or another. It had its abuses, the grossest of which was baby farming, the scandal of which necessitated legislation in the form of the Infant Life Protection Act 1872 which made it compulsory for persons taking for hire two or more infants less than a year old to register with the local authorities, who were the Councils in the care of the boroughs and the Justices in the case of counties. A new Infant Life Protection Act was passed in 1897 which included the power for the inspectors of the local authority forcibly to remove a fostered child to a place of safety if it were endangered. A further measure to the same end was the Notification of Births Act 1907, a permissive act , made compulsory in 1915, whereby all births had not only to be registered but also notified to the local medical officer of health. Under the Children Act 1908, the legislation was extended to cover those fostering one child for reward. Child life protection as a whole was transferred to the Poor Law authorities, whose duties comprised the receiving of notice where a person undertook for reward the nursing and maintenance of an infant under the age of 7; the appointment of visitors to inspect such children; the limitation of the number in a dwelling; the removal of such infants improperly kept; and the receiving of fines imposed from offences.

The archives of this Board are believed to have been destroyed by fire shortly before 1929.

Records received with the records of the successor County Council.

Records of Staines Poor Law Union Board of Guardians, 1905-1930, comprising relief order book containing lists of out-relief cases; financial accounts and registers of persons undertaking nursing and maintenance of infants.

In 3 sections: Relief Order Book; Financial; Infant Life Protection.

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Copyright: City of London.
English

Fit

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

For more records relating to Staines local government see references ACC/1427; ACC/1524; ACC/1747 and ACC/3408. For the records of the Middlesex County Council, who took over Staines Board of Guardians institutions, see MCC.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. April to June 2009 Poor relief Poor Law boards of guardians Government Public administration Local government Local boards Boards of Guardians Health services Care Care of children Social services Social security Poor Law Architecture Buildings Workhouses Social welfare Care of poor and aged Poor Law union Staines Poor Law Union x Staines Board of Guardians London England UK Western Europe Surrey Staines Middlesex Europe

Records received with the records of the successor County Council.

Records of Staines Poor Law Union Board of Guardians, 1905-1930, comprising relief order book containing lists of out-relief cases; financial accounts and registers of persons undertaking nursing and maintenance of infants.

In 3 sections: Relief Order Book; Financial; Infant Life Protection.

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Copyright: City of London.

• anglais

• latin

English

For more records relating to Staines local government see references ACC/1427; ACC/1524; ACC/1747 and ACC/3408. For the records of the Middlesex County Council, who took over Staines Board of Guardians institutions, see MCC.

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• anglais